The Oscar Project

by Chris Marshall:

I’m a sucker for the Oscars. Even though I think the Academy makes the wrong decision more often than not, I still respect the award. It means something. Every movie that wins Best Picture, deservedly or not, becomes part of the canon. Every winner in the acting categories will have that title to fall back on for the rest of their careers. Studios can feature it on every movie poster: STARRING ACADEMY AWARD WINNER CUBA GOODING, JR.

As a fledgling cinephile, though, I’m shamefully lacking when it comes to actually watching these films. Before this project started, I had seen a mere 22 of the 84 Best Picture winners, including only 8 of the first 50. Time certainly hasn’t been kind to many of the early winners, but they still deserve to be seen.

With this in mind, I began a quest at the beginning of April. I will watch all 84 winners, even those I have seen before, in order, and I will finish before the end of 2012. I must watch them from beginning to end. No skipping through the boring stuff. Counting my current progress, I will need to watch one winner roughly every three days to pull it off. This is very doable.

I’m also committing to writing at least 500 words about each movie. It might take the form of a straight review, or in the case of some films about which there is so little left to be said, the article might be a little more esoteric.

My hope is that this will continue to feel like fun and not work. After seeing the first few winners, it is clear that tastes and standards are vastly different today, but it’s fascinating to watch the rapid evolution of cinema during the transitional period between silents and talkies. There will be obstacles along the way—I already dread devoting nearly four hours to The Great Ziegfeld—but by the end, I’ll be able to say what so few else can (or perhaps care to): I’ve seen them all.